The wood is Texas cedar, just a small chunk of trunk from a tree I cut down 4 years ago. I hollowed it out with a series of forstner bits, drill press, mortising chisel, roloc discs and sand paper.

The hinge is made out of a scrap of walnut and a piece of 1/8” brazing rod.

The crystal is from a friend in Winny, TX who hunts Crystals and collects license plates.The lining around the crystal is a piece of leather. I keep a bunch of leather scraps around for “Just in Case” use…. This worked out well.

The crystal is embedded in a hole filled with clear epoxy. The crystal is in there tightly but can still be removed.I originally planned to install five different colored LED’s with a tiny little fader circuit in the bottom to shine up through the crystal when the box was opened, powered by a couple of AAA batteries. Since the shop is closing for good, I decided I would finish it out with the leather. I have been waiting on the proper switch for the last 5 weeks. Geez, I can get stuff from China faster than that.

The finish is sanding the wood to 220 grit and using a wire brush on the bark to remove most of the loose stuff. About 6 coats of WB poly to stabilize the bark and 3 coats on the cut wood.

I would have finished off the leather a bit better, but I’ve kind of run out of any interest in any projects anymore.

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4 comments so far

Cool project! Where were you getting the light fixtures from? I have a piece of quartz crystal and have been thinking of doing something similar (although I just wanted a single color light to make it look like an iceberg).

Sorry to hear about your shop. I have always found hand tools and sandpaper to be very therapeutic – it really relaxes me to get out of the house and wander around the yard while sanding something (neighbors think it is strange but they seem to like the stuff I make).

John I don’t use LED’s in fixtures. I buy them in bulk from a lot of different suppliers—whoever has the cheapest price at the time.

I use 2mm, 3mm, 5mm and 10mm (cross section), some normal some ultrabright, some so bright they will burn your eyes if you look directly at them from 20’.Normal voltage is 1.2-1.9Vdc and 2.9-4.5Vdc depending on the LED configuration itself.With this type LED the longest lead is always the positive side. (Which gives you a method of deciding if a battery is correct or reversed polarity by making a simple tester).